Story Time 2: Tell a Tale
by Yuja
Summary: It was supposed to be a one-time assignment for his creative writing class. Just write it and get it done. Too bad the teacher actually LIKED the completed work. Now Isaac must write an on-going fiction about heroes traveling to rescue friends and save the world. That won't be too hard… right? [Modern college AU]


What can I say? Story Time was so much fun, I just had to come back for seconds. This story picks up shortly after where Story Time left off. I recommend reading that one first. Unlike the previous one-shot, though, this will be an on-going story that may never really end. There is no preplanned plot line, and no predetermined ending. I'm pretty much just going to be throwing whatever comes to mind at the characters, all while slowly but surely progressing Isaac's completion of the _odd little story_ he has going.

In other words, I'm just going to have fun with this one. Hope you enjoy reading! =) And even if this is me playing around, constructive crit and other feedback is still as loved as ever. I do prefer to give responses through author notes, but I don't mind using the reply system if requested.

**Obligatory disclaimer for this and all following chapters:** Camelot and Nintendo own Golden Sun and all related characters and places. I'm just the broke college grad who refuses to stop tossing the characters into strange situations.

**Warnings:** Language, egos, mentions of bullying, possibly some alcohol, all-nighters, caffeine addictions, and other stuff I won't know about until I write it. I don't think it's physically possible for me to write something without any drama creeping in, and this is a college setting anyway. In short, that T rating is there for a reason.

* * *

**Chapter One**

* * *

Honestly, if Garet really thought about it, he should have seen it coming. He'd been coerced into spending an entire day helping Isaac write the stupid assignment the first time. It only made sense that the universe would see fit to make it come back to haunt them.

"The Hell am I reading?"

Garet took a long, drawn out sip through the straw of his orange soda, taking his sweet time in setting the cup back on the cheap cafeteria table. Or was this technically a university food court? Eh, details.

"Isaac's writing class." Felix's flat expression from over the stapled papers didn't budge. Garet graciously humored him with further explanation. "He wrote that for the first assignment, and now he has to write the sequel for the second."

He had to admit, it was impressive how much had been covered during that first assignment submission. In the story, a group of friends (Robin, Gerald, and Jasmine) had ventured into a mountain cave above their village home (Vale). The friends were exploring on behalf of a local scholar (Sclater), but in the process led the way for a small band of thieves (Satyuros, Menadi, and Garcia) to sneak in and steal several priceless treasures being held in a special vault. In the ensuing confrontation, one of the thieves (Garcia) was revealed to be the brother of one of the friends (Jasmine), and the scholar (Talks-Too-Much Sclater) and the friend (Jasmine) were kidnapped. The story concluded with the remaining friends (Robin and Gerald) setting out to save the captives (mainly Jasmine) and retrieve the stolen treasures (because crap like that was important, and child endangerment wasn't really a concern).

All in all, a job well done.

"And I'm one of the villains in this… because?"

Garet blinked his surprise. "You caught that part?"

Felix's flat look turned even flatter, if that were possible. "You named him Garcia, older brother of the character Jasmine."

"So?"

Garet made a mental note to work on improving his innocent act in the future. As it was, Felix slid the papers back to Garet across the table with an irritable flick of the wrist. Then he started stabbing at foodstuff on his plate.

"You use my middle name, and then use a J-name for the sister. You two are the worst when it comes to creativity. And stop stealing my dictionaries!"

Garet gave a cheeky grin. "Right. Says the guy who named his pet rock Pewter." Oooh, that one earned him a rather burning glare. If anything, Garet's grin grew even broader at the sight. "And that right there is why you're a villain." He conveniently left out any response about suspiciously missing textbooks.

Any attempt by Felix to defend his questionable villainy, or lack there of, was quickly interrupted by a cheery, sing-song greeting. "Helloooo, boys!" A third tray of food appeared at their table, shortly followed by none other than Jenna. She flipped her red ponytail back over her shoulder as she took her seat, looking briefly between the two males before sorting through what she had purchased. "Garet, what did you do to break my brother this time?"

Garet sputtered indignantly at the accusation. "What makes you think _I_ did anything?"

"Well, he's glaring a slow and painful death at you, for starters. And secondly," she paused in her meal preparations to spare him a knowing smirk, "you two have been sitting here unsupervised for over a minute."

Garet swallowed whatever rebuttal he had been thinking up. Okay, so he'd give her that one.

With a lone finger, he nudged the short stack of fiction in her direction. "Was hoping to get some feedback and ideas for Isaac's writing homework. Care to give it a read through? He needs a sequel chapter by Friday night."

Jenna grimaced, but it was one of sympathy for their friend. For them, it was already lunchtime on Wednesday. That deadline only gave Isaac another two and a half days, if that. And knowing Isaac as well as they did, that meant his days and nights were most likely already to the point of blurring into one long stretch of time.

"Ouch. That soon?" She picked up the offered manuscript with one hand and skimmed the first page. "Where is Isaac, anyway?"

The roommate of the teen in question poked at his own food. "Back at the dorms, working on something due this afternoon."

"Did he eat yet?"

"Probably not. Pretty sure he's been up since yesterday again, too."

Jenna dropped the papers to the table with an offended huff. "We'll just see about _that_."

* * *

"Lunch break!"

Isaac jumped back in his seat as a brown paper bag dropped onto his third page of some dead mathematician's theorem. So help him, there had better not be anything soaking through the bottom of that bag. He countered with a half-hearted, "Garet, I'm busy."

The redhead flopped into his own desk chair and proceeded to pop open the lid to a Styrofoam container he was holding. "Yeah, with eating. Duh. Oh goodie, I got the noodles!"

Heaven help him… "I have homework. I don't have time right now for a lunch break." As he spoke, Isaac lifted the bag with hesitant dread. Fortunately, the bottom seemed to be dry, and checking inside revealed all of the containers still safely sealed.

"Ah ah ah," Garet tutted, jabbing a plastic fork in Isaac's direction. "No excuses, or I'll eat all that food myself and tell Jenna you threw it away." It was a low blow, and Isaac's scandalized glare only confirmed it as such, but some things called for desperate measures. "Hey, not my call. Crazy girl's orders. I'll play nice only if you agree to eat as you work."

Isaac seemed to ponder the offered compromise. The food really did smell good, though, and he really was hungry once he stopped long enough to notice. Rather than agree to anything, he picked out a container and set the bag aside. "Who all was there today?"

"Just Felix and Jenna. Ivan was at the library with some friend of his. He may stop by later with some notes I asked for."

"You shouldn't be using him like that,"

"Kid's a genius, and don't act like you haven't asked for the same."

Isaac glared his disapproval at Garet over a forkful of fried rice. "Yeah, because I missed the class and he offered first. You're just being lazy."

Garet waved it off. "Whatever."

"What about Mia?"

The beat of silence following that question wasn't reassuring. Isaac looked up from his rice. Garet was slowly slurping up a forkful of noodles, but Isaac could read his friend just as well as Garet could do vice versa. Garet was stalling. "Garet?"

Garet poked at the noodles still in the cup. "Don't freak," he said in what was supposed to be a calming manner, but from the look on Isaac's face it wasn't working. Best to not give the imagination time to run away with him. "It's not the usual problems, just dehydration. She should be getting out of the hospital this evening."

"What? When did this happen? Why didn't anyone say—"

"Calm down, hero boy. She's going to be fine." Isaac sulked, but let the topic drop. "Hey, how's that story going?" The grimace was unmistakable, and Garet chuckled at the change. "That bad?"

"I made some revisions to the first chapter, but that's about it. The characters made it to the next town, but now I have no clue what they should do while there."

Garet raised a curious brow as he finished off another bite of noodles. "Who says they need to do anything? Why not end the misery and have them catch the thieves?"

"Because," Isaac sighed, "if the teacher wanted it wrapped up I wouldn't have needed to write a continuation. I even asked if I should write the conclusion." He leaned back in his chair to stare at a point high on the wall. "'_What's the fun in that?'_ Teacher's words, not mine."

"That sucks." Isaac nodded his agreement with Garet's sympathies.

A knock sounded at the door. Having not locked it after returning from lunch, Garet called for whoever it was to come on in. A moment later, a blonde head of hair appeared through the narrow opening. "Ivan! Come on in and join us. We were just discussing Isaac's latest torment."

"You mean, other than yourself?" Ivan smirked teasingly, while Garet deadpanned. "I brought those notes you asked for, Garet. And yours, too, Isaac."

As expected, Garet brightened at the prospect. "Dude, you are a lifesaver. Thanks, kiddo." He reached out a hand to accept the offered papers… which were snapped back out of reach with a disapproving look. "What? What'd I do?"

"I already had to deal with some jerks from chem. today. I'm not giving you this so you can make fun of me, too."

It was no secret that Ivan was teased, although "bullied" was probably the better term most days. Not only was he short for his age, but he had skipped probably two or three grades by the time he had finished high school. All in all, Ivan was a miniature genius, and it didn't do him many favors when surrounded by the wonderful world of college egos.

"What'd they do this time?" Isaac asked.

Ivan shrugged. "It's nothing."

Isaac wasn't buying it. Ivan wasn't looking at them, and Isaac knew darn well that the dorm room carpet wasn't that interesting. "Ivan…"

"They took my pencil!" Isaac and Garet blinked. Of all the things a group of bullies could do, that certainly wasn't what they had been expecting. It didn't lessen the effect of Ivan's visible distress, though. "You know, my wooden mechanical pencil? The one I use every day?"

There was a beat before recognition dawned on Garet's face. "Oh! You mean that wand-ish, mini-staff-ish thing? With the curl at the end?" Lame description, but Ivan nodded all the same.

"I set it down so I could pack up my bag after class, and one of them snatched it before I could stop them."

Isaac was frowning heavily by then. "Did you get it back?"

Ivan shook his head. A miserable sniffle could be heard. "They said they didn't have it, even with them standing right there and being all smug about it. There wasn't anyone else still in the room to see or back me up, though." Even if there had been, they all knew it was unlikely anyone would have stepped in. That part went without saying.

With some more prodding, the two roommates managed to get Ivan to disclose who the suspected thieves were. Garet groaned and stretched theatrically as he stood. "Well, this has been a very lovely day today. Would be a _shame_ for me to allow three poor souls to sit around and miss it. You coming, Isaac?"

Isaac declined with a smile. He still had another seven or so pages of equations to go, after all. Garet had it covered. Knowing him, Isaac would only get in the way of the show. Besides, Ivan was staring at Garet with so much admiration and gratitude right then. He didn't even seem to mind when another quip was made about his age ("Come, Rugrat! We must show that evil never prevails!").

As his friends departed, Isaac turned his attention down to the cup of fried rice still in his hands. He prodded the food, deep in thought. Finally, he took one last, large bite, set the container aside, and opened his laptop.

Math could wait. He knew what Robin and Gerald could do while staying in that next village now.


End file.
